ANTWERP AS IT WAS.
In the first half of the sixteenth century Antwerp was the commercial capital of the world. The great historian of the Dutch Republic[156] says, "Venice, Nuremberg,[157] Augsburg,[158] Bruges were sinking; but Antwerp, with its deep and convenient river, stretched its arm to the ocean, and caught the golden prize as it fell from its sister cities' grasp. . . . No city except Paris surpassed it in population; none approached it in commercial splendour."
Close to the great and beautiful cathedral of Antwerp is the Grand' Place, in the middle of which there is a monument representing a running warrior flinging into the river a huge hand which he has just cut off from a prostrate giant's arm. This monument is intended to explain the fanciful origin of the city's name. Two centuries before the fall of Troy—so runs the story—a savage giant, named Antigonus, held sway over the river Scaldis—that is, the Scheldt. He built himself a castle on the river bank, and levied tribute on every vessel that passed up and down the broad stream. The tribute was very heavy—no less than half the merchandise in the passing ships. If the mariners refused to pay the tribute he seized them, cut off their hands, and flung them into the river.
A Bird's-eye View of Antwerp. Photo, Topical Press.
This photograph was taken from one of the towers of Antwerp's magnificent cathedral—the largest and most beautiful Gothic church in the Netherlands. Its north tower rises to a height of more than four hundred feet. On the south side of the cathedral is the Place Verte (Green Place), with a statue of Rubens, whose famous picture, "The Descent from the Cross," formerly hung in the south transept. In the north transept was another of his great paintings, "The Elevation of the Cross."
At length a deliverer arose, one Salvius Brabo, a man of such valorous renown that the province of Brabant received its name from him. Brabo challenged the giant to single combat, slew him, cut off both his hands, and flung them into the Scheldt. Thus Hand-werpen—that is, "hand-throwing"—became the name of the great city. In the coat-of-arms of Antwerp you still see two severed hands flying through the air over a castle. Probably the real origin of the city's name is found in the old Flemish words 'an t' werf, which mean "on the wharf."
The city began to decline during the reign of Philip II., who was King of Spain and master of the Netherlands. In 1576 Spanish soldiers whose pay was in arrears broke into mutiny, and stormed and sacked several of the richest towns of Flanders, including Antwerp. Early in November of that year they entered the city, burnt more than a thousand houses, slew more than eight thousand citizens, plundered right and left, and behaved with the utmost cruelty. Such was the "Spanish Fury," which still forms a landmark in Flemish history. With the help of William of Orange,[159] the Spaniards were driven out of Antwerp.
In 1648 the city received another grievous set-back: it fell into the hands of the Dutch, who closed the Scheldt against sea-going vessels. Then for a hundred and fifty years it remained only a shadow of its former self. In 1706 it surrendered to Marlborough after his victory at Ramillies. The real restorer of its prosperity was Napoleon I., who, you will remember, regarded Antwerp as "a pistol aimed at the heart of England." He constructed a harbour and new quays, and opened the port to the ships of the world. Almost at once the trade of the city revived in an astonishing fashion. The French remained masters of Antwerp down to the year before the Battle of Waterloo, when the British, Prussians, and Belgians besieged and captured it.
In 1830 it once more fell into the hands of an enemy. During the civil war of 1830-32, when the Belgians were striving to throw off the yoke of Holland and make themselves independent, Antwerp was the scene of a very curious kind of strife. A Dutch garrison held the citadel, and day by day bombarded the city. For two years the Dutchmen defied all the efforts of the Belgians to dislodge them. At last a British and French force was sent to turn them out. The French bombarded the citadel for twenty-four days, while a British fleet blockaded the river. In December 1832 the citadel surrendered, and when it fell Belgium had won her independence.
Such, in brief, is the stormy history of Antwerp down to the autumn of the year 1914. A visitor to the old city in the early days of July would have imagined that its peace was secured for ever. No one could believe that in less than three months this haven of peaceful trade was to be a place of slaughter, destruction, and desolation. The "Spanish Fury" was soon to be out-Heroded; the "German Fury" was already preparing.
In July 1914 Antwerp, with its population of 400,000 souls and its vast trade—which exceeded in value £100,000,000 per year—was not only one of the great business cities of the world, but was considered to be one of the strongest of all fortified places in Europe. Before an enemy could capture the city he would have to break through four distinct lines of defence, each of which, prior to this war, was considered strong enough to oppose any force which could be brought against it.
The outermost line of forts began at Lierre,[160] and swept round in a great circle south through Fort Waelhem to the Scheldt, and north through Fort Schooten to near the Dutch frontier. Two to three miles within this outer line of forts was a second line of defence formed by the rivers Nethe[161] and Rupel, which, along with the Scheldt, make a great natural waterway defending three sides of the city. If need be, the valleys of these rivers can be flooded, and thus form an additional barrier to the approach of an enemy. Some six miles within the line of the Nethe and Rupel, and about three miles from the centre of the city, was another chain of forts girdling it from the Scheldt on the south to the Scheldt on the north. Outside this inner line of defence, towards the north and west, were two other areas, which could be flooded in order to keep back the enemy. From the moment that the first German soldier set foot on the soil of Belgium, the military authorities were at work night and day strengthening the defences, and clearing away all the trees and buildings that lay in the line of fire of the guns in the forts.
The Entrenched Camp of Antwerp.
Barbed-wire entanglements connected with the electric supply of the city covered acres of ground; stakes were driven point upwards to form obstacles; man-traps innumerable were constructed, and the fields all around were sown with mines. Preparations were made to blow up the bridges over the network of canals and rivers to the south of the city; machine guns and quick-firers were mounted everywhere; and at night searchlights swept over the zone of destruction, and made it bright as day.
In this way Antwerp prepared to stand its latest siege.